Kelly: Could get 15 years in prison
(AP Photo/Brian Kersey)
Will R. Kelly finally face trial?
What happened
After nearly six years of delays, Grammy-winning R&B singer R. Kelly may finally be heading to court, as jury selection in the child pornography case against him is scheduled to begin on Friday, according to the Associated Press. The case stems from a videotape that allegedly shows Kelly having sex with a girl as young as 13-years-old. If convicted, Kelly faces up to 15 years in prison. But Kelly’s attorneys have filed a motion to delay the trial yet again.
What the commentators said
Will R. Kelly “finally get his day in court?” said Steven Gray in Time.com. It “looks like it can go either way.” If this case does move forward, “it certainly doesn’t help Kelly that in ‘Double Up,’ the title song from his 2007 album, he boasts of his affection for threesomes. It also doesn’t help that Kelly has in recent years settled at least three lawsuits filed by women who alleged they had sex with him while they were minors.”
“The R. Kelly kiddie porn trial has been delayed for more than five years,” said TMZ.com. “So what’s another five years between litigants?” Kelly’s lawyers are trying “to delay the trial for what seems like the 18 millionth time,” claiming that there is too much publicity surrounding it. But supposedly, “the judge in the case—Vincent Gaughan—has been trying to avoid leaks precisely so that Kelly won’t have any excuse to delay the proceedings any longer.”
Well, one thing’s for sure, said Chris Cechin in Radar Online. If this trial happens, “it will certainly be an international spectacle.” Aside from “the peculiar savant on trial, the characters in this saga are as intricately—and humorously—cast as the artist’s most ingeniously created masterworks: A look-alike brother unwilling to take the fall in exchange for cash and a recording contract; a coy, star-struck tart claiming to have double-teamed R. Kelly with the video’s alleged victim; an ill-tempered, media-averse judge;” and “a woman nursing dashed R&B dreams and gunning for the accused.”
